The Fruitless Pursuit of Perfection

How are your New Year's resolutions doing?  Are they in tatters yet?  Perhaps not.  Maybe your new found self-discipline is lasting well, but please spare a thought for the rest of us and keep quiet about it!  Both Diane and I would like to lose half a stone each in weight before our son's wedding in May - but hey - in the light of all we have been through it doesn't really matter, does it?  Diane says 'there is hope for any woman who can stand in front of her mirror and laugh at what she sees!'  I think the same is true for men too.  Being at ease in your own skin is such a healthy place to be.  Mind you, I still want to lose that paunch!

Liz Jones, diarist and fashion writer for the Mail on Sunday, took a look back at her diaries since 1978 in last Sunday's YOU magazine.  She noted the same resolutions in many of them.  'Jog, Ex-foliate, Tan, Pluck' she wrote time and again.  'That just about sums up my life.  An endless, ultimately fruitless, pursuit of perfection.'  If that describes you, then I feel for you and for Liz, but surely life is more than that?  What we are in the body is not all that we are.  Whatever size we may be or however ugly we feel, we are made in the image of God and He delights in doing us good.  The greatest good is the experience of acceptance and peace that comes from finding His forgiveness and the inner beauty of a life transformed by His love.

Liz went on to say that in 2012 her list has become 'Filler, IPL, Botox, Teeth Steam, Full set of Lashes, Airbrush Tan, Hair Dye, Brazilian (must be to do with coffee!!), and Gel Pedicure.'  Now that's an expensive pursuit of perfection if ever I saw one.